Adamya Chetana: Feeding the frontline

As the nation went into lockdown last year, generous souls from B’luru went to the frontlines of the pandemic. Adamya Chetana and Akshaya Patra Foundation led from the front, providing thousands of meals to the poor and marginalized, battling hunger during Covid-19. Nischith N. reports.

In keeping with its essence to serve people, particularly in times of need, Adamya Chetana headed by Dr Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, swiftly responded to the situation when containment measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 left millions of people without any access to food. When Karnataka went into lockdown, Adamya Chetana collaborated with the government and its donors to set up packaging centres for food relief kits and the Mega Kitchen of Adamya Chetana reopened its doors with due adherence to all the safety protocols.

Meals were served and food relief kits with essential groceries were distributed to daily-wage earners, labourers at construction sites, workers in industrial areas, migrant labourers and rough sleepers.

Dr Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, Managing Trustee, Chairperson of Adamya Chetana said that Adamya was the first to “open our kitchen, doing all the procedures, after which many organizations followed.”

Adamya Chetana also collaborated with many trusts in taking care of doctors, nurses, and hospital staff and feeding them during the pandemic. The Foundation supplied hot meals to the hospital staff. They distributed lunch and dinner to hospital staff across 45 Hospitals in Bengaluru and around 7,500 meals were supplied on a daily basis. Also, other frontline workers including hundreds of police personnel deployed across the city receive food from the organization during the daytime.

The organization also started an initiative called Nithya Annadana’ (Everyday meals) to provide food daily to the ones in need. According to reports, Adamya Chetana has served 2.5 lakh meals to medical staff in 45 hospitals during COVID second wave. The organization started the initiative called as Nithya Annadana’ (Everyday meals) to provide food daily to the ones in need. The main principles on which the team is built include Anna, Akshara and Aarogya (Food-Education Health), through which they have touched the lives of thousands of people. From providing mid-day meals to nurturing education among the children, this organization has stood in the forefront of serving the society. It was set up in 1998 in memory of Girija Shastry, mother of late BJP MP Ananth Kumar.

Serving a million meals: Akshaya Patra

As the COVID-19 crisis continued to loom across the country, the government had to adopt strict combat measures, including a nationwide lockdown. At this great hour of need, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, in close coordination with State Governments and the District Administration, stepped in to provide relief by providing food and many other facilities to thousands of people across the country. Working out of Bengaluru city, the Akshaya Patra Foundation made its presence felt across the country, providing meals and packed grocery kits to the marginalized, all made and packed with strict adherence to safety and hygiene measures. These packages went to wage workers, migrant laborers, construction site workers, and needy people at old age homes and night shelters.

Akshaya Patra Foundation extended food relief in various locations across 21 states and four union territories in coordination with state governments, UT Administrations and civic bodies The Foundation also coordinated with the local administration to identify areas that need urgent care and provide relief to the affected people in both the first and second wave. They used their kitchen networks to prepare fresh, safe and hygienic cooked meals and deliver them to the food relief centres, hospitals and quarantine centres, slums, crematoriums, railway stations, etc.

Speaking to News Trail, Shri Naveena Neerada Dasa, Director – Strategic Communication, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, said “A pandemic is often accompanied by food security crises, making food assistance a crucial part of the humanitarian relief that follows. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have served over 20.5 Crore meals to vulnerable populations, such as daily wagers and slum dwellers, in the form of cooked food and grocery kits utilizing our kitchen infrastructure and resources.”

The reports says that the Foundation and its Association Foundations have provided food relief in, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Telangana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand ,Tripura ,West Bengal , Punjab , Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh.

As a need-based solution, the Foundation also provided different types of grocery kits to people from vuln